The EverTurning Wheel
by RamblinRose
Summary: An odd little alternate-ending thing that i wrote a long time ago...enjoy :)
1. the end is only the beginning

Ever-Turning Wheel Notes: ~thought~, *exclamated*, ::flashbacks::, lyrics. {dream}  
  
Ch. 1  
  
"...And my kingdom as great, my kingdom as great, damn! I can never remember that line!" Sarah swore at her failing memory. The clock began to sound...one. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Seven. Eight. Nine. She heard a scurrying sound behind her, causing her to lose count. Another chime.  
  
The words suddenly flooded back into her head, "*You have no power over me*!" she shouted at the top of her lungs. She suddenly found herself back in her own living room, the clock striking midnight.  
  
She ran upstairs, to make sure that her brother was home safe. She entered his room, and saw a reassuring lump underneath his blanket. As she rushed towards the crib, she felt that something was wrong...but what? She soon found out when she reached the crib. Toby was nowhere to be seen.  
  
The bed was empty, the lump had been nothing but his pillow. She heard cruel laughter echo around the room...*his* laughter. She made her way back into her room, and collapsed in her chair as the awful truth finally hit her. Jareth had kept Toby.  
  
She sat there for almost five minutes, and then she furiously started gathering up her childhood things, anything connected with the Labyrinth. She had boxed it all up, and packed it away in her closet, when she realized that she had forgotten the statuette of Jareth.  
  
She picked it up and studied the exquisite detail. She ran a finger down the outline of his face...such a handsome face. Suddenly, her rage overcame her, and she threw the statuette down on the floor, stomping it into oblivion. Not caring that the broken pieces had ground into her carpet, she flung herself onto her bed and cried herself to sleep.  
  
Sarah had been too exhausted to notice that, in desecrating the statuette, she had somehow avoided shattering the crystal the the figure held out. In the moonlight, the crystal started to glow as the broken pieces pulled themselves back together... 


	2. Madness takes it's toll

Ch. 2  
  
An incessant banging interrupted Sarah's peaceful slumber. "Sarah! Wake up, you'll be late for school!" her stepmothers' voice invaded what was left of her dreams. Sarah mumbled some unintelligable words, and rolled over.  
  
Then the momentum of what Karen had said hit her sleep-fuzzed brain. She stumbled out of bed, showered, dressed, gathered her books, and raced downstairs for breakfast. As she grabbed her toast and raced out the door, she couldn't help feeling something was missing... shouldn't there be someone else at the table?  
  
She shrugged the feeling off, and ran her hardest towards the high school. Without bothering to stop at her locker, she skidded into homeroom just as the bell rang.  
  
She grabbed an empty seat, sat down, and desperately started rifling through her papers for her homework, all the while muttering under her breath, "It's not fair, it's not fair, it's not fair!" ~Thats right, it's not fair! But thats only half of it!~ her mind responded to her muttering. ~whoa...where did that come from?!?!~ she thought to herself.  
  
To her chagrine, she realized she had completely blown off her homework...but what she had done instead totally eluded her searching memory. "Hell with it." she mumbled, and hoped the teacher wouldn't ask her for any of the answers. She leaned her head against the wall next to her, and slowly dozed off...  
  
{The world seemed to have turned a shimmering white, and it spun at a rather alarming rate. Then she realized she was dancing with someone. Tall, dressed in sapphire blue, with blue streaks in glam-rock-style hair, and *way* too much makeup. He seemed...familiar. He smiled coldly, stepped back, and suddenly she was no longer dancing, the world was no longer white. Stairs, all around. On the ceiling, the floor, the walls. The same man, now dressed in black and dark red, walking on the ceiling. He looked as if he was singing something, something she desperately needed to hear. She ran after him, but he simply danced farther away, still singing, just out of earshot. Someone called her name, over and over. She began to fall, the stairs crumbling around her...}  
  
"Sarah! *Sarah!*" the teacher was practically yelling at her, trying to wake her up. She looked up, blinking, trying to remember where she was. The teacher glared at her through wire-rimmed glasses. "I don't have time to deal with this! Go see Mr. Smythe." the teacher fumed at her. Sarah picked up her bag and silently left the room. Her footsteps echoed in the long corridor as she headed for the vice-principals office.  
  
How you've turned my world you precious thing... you starve and near exhaust me... Everything I've done, I've done for you... I move the stars for no one... You've run so long, you've run so far... Your eyes can be so cruel... Just as I can be so cruel... Though I do believe in you... yes I do... live without your sunlight... love without your heartbeat... I, I can't live, within you...  
  
The slow, haunting melody seemed to flow from the walls. Sarah gasped, as she immediately recognized it as the song from her dream. She whirled around, looking for a source, but the halls were empty. Sarah ran for the girls bathroom. She turned on the tap, and splashed cool water on her face, then grabbed a paper towel and wiped it off.  
  
She placed her hands on the side of the sink, and looked up into the mirror. She gasped, and bit back a scream. The face looking out at her was not her own. The man from her dream stared out at her with that cold, cruel smile. In his arms, he held a little boy wearing striped pajamas.  
  
The boy turned his head to look at her with uncanny intelligence in his young eyes...eyes that matched those of the person holding him. Two sets of mismatched eyes bored into her hazel ones. Sarah screamed, racing out of the bathroom, down the hallway, and out of the school, completely forgetting that she was supposed to go see Mr. Smythe.  
  
A good few blocks away from the school, Sarah slowed down to catch her breath. When she had been walking for a while, and had calmed down enough to think, she realized she had better head somewhere crowded, and fast. Skipping school would earn her a detention, and she had no desire to be caught.  
  
With that thought in mind, she made her way to the mall. It was always fairly crowded no matter what day of the week it was. She wandered around, trying to stay out of peoples' way, once in a while stopping in front of a window display.  
  
She stopped in front of one of the windows, and stared at herself. She was a mess. Red eyes, hair completely out of whack, clothes rumpled. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a blonde figure walk past. She turned around to see him dissapear into the throng of people.  
  
She shoved her way through the mass of bodies, just in time to see him walk out of sight around a corner. At top speed, she rushed around the corner...only to hit an empty dead end. It was where a new store was going to be, and there was no one there but her.  
  
She sighed, turned around, and headed back towards the mainstream of people. However, instead of the mall behind her, she only met with another dead end. She whirled around over and over until she was so dizzy she could hardly stand up, but it didn't make a difference. She was still boxed in.  
  
And was it her imagination, or were the walls closing in on her? She kept spinning around, wide eyed with terror, praying to see a way out. She spotted something, and stopped twirling. There. A door. A large, wooden door.  
  
She didn't know how she could possibly have missed it before, but she didn't stop to think about it either. She dived towards it, opened it, and stepped through just in time to avoid being crushed by the moving walls. In front of her was now a torch-lit corridor. The walls appeared to be made of black, shiny obsidian, and seemed to go on forever. Sarah shrugged, and started down the hall... 


	3. the 'Oh Sht' moment

Ch. 3  
  
The walls seemed to fluxuate in size...one moment she could barely stand up without hitting her head on the ceiling, and the next minute she couldn't touch the roof if she jumped.  
  
She had gone about half a mile when a sudden gust of wind blew out the torches. "Such a pity..." came a voice from nowhere, followed by a cold echoing laughter. Sarah kept walking, her breath now coming in shallowy gasps. She had gone only a few steps farther when she reached another door, identical to the last.  
  
As she walked through it, the maddeningly familiar voice chuckled again. She found herself in the room from her dream, with the stairs going every whichway. the heavy wooden dooer slammed shut behind her, and she jumped as she turned. Pull as she might on the doorhandle, she coudn't budge it even an inch.  
  
How you've turned my world, you precious thing...  
  
The silvery smooth voice cascaded over her. She turned around to face the room. "Jareth!" she gasped. "But...how did I know that?" She looked at him questioningly, expecting him to answer her. Instead, he only gave her a maddeningly mysterious smirk, and continued to sing.  
  
You starve and near exhaust me...  
  
"Why does it look so familiar here?" Sarah spoke again.  
  
Everything I've done, I've done for you...  
  
"Who are you?"  
  
I move the stars for no one...  
  
"Why won't you answer me?!?"  
  
You've run so long, you've run so far...  
  
"Can anybody hear me? Please help! Anyone! Please!"  
  
Your eyes can be so cruel...  
  
"Please...anyone..." She reduced to sobs as she crumpled down against the locked door.  
  
Just as I can be so cruel...  
  
"Please help me!!!!!!" She screamed, one last effort.  
  
Though I do believe in you...  
  
"Please..." She was whimpering now.  
  
Yes, I do...  
  
Live without your sunlight...  
  
The man called Jareth began to advance a step for every line.  
  
Love without your heartbeat...  
  
Another step.  
  
I, I I can't live...  
  
Another step. He was right in front of her now.  
  
Within you....  
  
He cradled her chin in his hand and forced her tear-blurred eyes to meet his.  
  
"Sarah..."  
  
He let go and stepped away.  
  
"Sarah..." He said again. The room crumbled around her, like in her dream, except this time it was rearranging itself into a platform. Not even a room, really, just some archways and a floor, seemingly floating in a purple sky. Jareth was somehow behind her now, his hand on her shoulder.  
  
"Look." He said. Suddenly Sarah saw herself floating down onto the floor. Jareth ~But how can it be, he's right behind me!~ walked out of one of the archways. He circled the other Sarah, saying something. It was like watching a movie on mute, Sarah couldn't hear what was being said. The other Jareth began to look frightened, as the other Sarah advanced on him, saying something determinedly, forcefully. Suddenly Sarah could hear what was going on as well as being able to see it.  
  
"For my will is as strong as yours," She was saying,"And my kingdom is as great!" She faltered.  
  
"My kingdom as great, my kingdom as great...damn! I can never remember that line!" Sarah watched a self-satisfied grin spread over the other Jareth's face. Somewhere unseen, a clock began to chime. One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Seven. Eight. Nine. A goblin ran past the other Sarah, and she seemed to lose her concentration. Ten. Eleven. Twelve. Thirteen.  
  
"You have no power over me!" Sarah said in seeming amazement. "You have no power over me!" But had been too late. The other Sarah disappeared, leaving the original to watch the other Jareth smirk self-satisfactorily. Tears streamed down her face. It all made sense now. She had lost. From behind her, she heard a deep, throaty chuckle begin. She turned, startled. She had forgotten that Jareth the original was back there.  
  
"What now?" She asked timidly.  
  
"Now, my dear Sarah? Now you are mine."  
  
~Finis coronat opus~  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*  
  
A/N: Okay-dokey then :) Erm...yeah...the reason all these chappies showed up at once is because I had way too much time on my hands and no internet when I wrote it...but review anyway. k :) And for anyone who didn't figure it out, this was and alternate-ending-type-thingie...yeah...go review :)  
  
Disclaimer: They don't belong to me, they don't belong to you, they all belong to Henson, so be nice and please don't sue. Yeah. 


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